Alberta separatists vow to fight on after referendum loss: ‘Tonight isn’t the finish line’

The results of Monday’s Alberta referendum question on separation from Canada won’t be official for more than a week, but all indications are that the separatist movement was handed a sound defeat.

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As the earliest numbers showed about 76 per cent in favour of remaining in Confederation, a figure that hasn’t changed much as of 10 a.m. MT, separatist leader Jeffrey Rath expressed optimism about the political movement and re-emphasized the need to take control of the United Conservative Party of Alberta from Premier Danielle Smith, whom he said conspired with “fake news” and the “entire Canadian political establishment” to campaign against independence.

“It’s time to have a serious discussion as to whether or not a supermajority of the (UCP) want to continue to be led by a federalist who’s in bed with Naheed Nenshi, Mark Carney, Rachel Notley, and the rest of the socialists and globalists that have literally been ruining this province and ruining this country,” Rath told Global News late Monday night at a downtown Edmonton pizza parlour.

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During his interview, the self-described “constitutional lawyer” and co-founder of the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP) estimated that, by night’s end, anywhere from 600,000 to 700,000 people will have voted in favour of starting the formal process of Alberta seceding from Canada. Elections Alberta, with 78 per cent of polls reported, counted 458,923 as of 10 a.m. Official results are due on Thursday, Oct. 29.

Rath said supporters of independence won’t be swayed from their cause.

“We roll up our sleeves and we work harder because that’s who we are as people,” he said.

As for Smith, she said on X that she was “very pleased” with the initial results on the separation question and promised to address the province at 6:45 p.m. local time on Tuesday, “to discuss the results of all referendum questions for which results are available, and where our province goes from here.”

With roughly 40% of polls reporting, nearly one in four votes cast have gone to Option 2.

Many will see tonight as a catastrophic setback for Alberta’s independence movement.

I don’t.

What we just witnessed was a grassroots movement stand against the combined weight of… pic.twitter.com/ghdixy1AzT

— Rise Of Alberta (@RiseOfAlberta) October 20, 2026

During a short but passionate concession speech shared by The Orchard late Monday night, APP co-founder and CEO Mitch Sylvestre said “Alberta has changed” and “there is no going back.”

“They can underestimate us. They can throw every obstacle imaginable in our way, and believe me, they have, but they cannot stop what has already started. Tonight isn’t the finish line,” he said.

“It’s another chapter in something much bigger than any one of us. We have awakened something in this province, and that spirit isn’t going anywhere.”

Sylvestre also addressed UCP co-founder and former Alberta premier Jason Kenny, a staunch opponent of the separatist movement, who last week said supporters of separatism were facing a post-referendum reckoning.

“We certainly don’t need lectures from those who have already underestimated us once before,” Sylvestre said.

The true reckoning, he said, is a group of Albertans that are “organized, integrated, and not putting up with the corruption and the failure.”

He told the BBC he was “not happy” about the results and the CBC that he’s “never been a good loser.”

After Kenny posted on X Monday that secession talk only pushed election-deciding “mainstream centre-right voters” away from conservative parties towards the NDP, Republican Party of Alberta leader Cameron Davies, another fierce separatism advocate, countered that they’re gravitating because conservatives are “acting and governing like liberal lite.”

“Fake conservatives are kryptonite for any real conservative movement,” he wrote.

This is the consequence of “Conservatives” acting and governing like liberal lite.

Fake conservatives are kryptonite for any real conservative movement.

Fixed it for ya bubba. https://t.co/60u8V1BuNc

— Cameron Davies (@Realcamdavies) October 20, 2026

In Calgary, Let Alberta Decide founder Keith Wilson, formerly of the 2022 Freedom Convoy, noted that at least a quarter “feel that Alberta needs to be treated better, that Alberta can do better.”

“So tonight concludes a campaign, but the conversation about Alberta’s future in Canada and our place in Canada and our role in Canada will continue,” he said in a video shared on X.

David Parker, founder of conservative group Take Back Alberta, called Monday’s result “bleak.”

“Independence feels far away and we should not pretend this was not a defeat,” he wrote on X, “however, it changes nothing about the reality of the circumstances Albertans find themselves in.”

Cory Morgan, founder of Pathway to Independence, said it’s not the UCP’s role to become a separatist party. He said a single advocacy group should lead the effort and that the recent campaign was hurt by not collectively addressing voters.

“We had six or seven different groups speaking throughout the campaign. You don’t run a general election that way; it would just be a dog’s breakfast,” he said.

Meanwhile, as the results were taking shape, pro-separation MLA Jason Stephan (Red Deer-South), announced on X that he would not seek re-election in next year’s provincial general election.

“The status quo is not the right way for Albertans. Empty words and platitudes do not make it otherwise,” he wrote in an open letter. “Some say they want UNITY, but their actions say otherwise. Does fearmongering, name calling labelling, and gaslighting produce unity?”

Dear Friends,

The Alberta provincial election will be in one year. By such time, I will have served as MLA for over 8 years and I will not be seeking re-election.

Thank you to for supporting my efforts to seek freedom and prosperity for Albertans, a blessed land that we love. pic.twitter.com/qjJseYPxI5

— Jason Stephan (@AlbertaNumber1) October 20, 2026

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